London Walks
London Walks is the oldest urban walking tour company on the planet. It’s the gold standard of this profession, this craft. Here you can listen to our guides' stories and anecdotes of London.
Everest – At Eve, The Rest
London calling.
London Walks connecting.
This… is London. This is London Walks. Streets ahead. Story time. History time.
A very good morning to you, London Walkers.
Wherever you are.
It’s Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026.
And here it is.
Your daily London fix.
Do you ever feel the urge to casually demolish your friends at a quiz night?
Not brutally.
Not with bad manners.
Just… efficiently.
A gentle clearing of the throat.
A sip of som...
To see London you have to hear it
Following on from yesterday's podcast about the London place-name "Bayswater", David opens up another front on that field of action: the ancient (it's Anglo-Saxon) place-name suffix "ee" (or "ea" or "ey").
TRANSCRIPT
London Calling. David here.
“To see London, you have to hear it.”
Quoting myself there. That sentence – to see London you have to hear it – is how I opened London Walks, London Stories, the London Walks book, all those years ago. Thought long and hard about it. Should we have a keynote? If so, what should it be? And should we sound it...
Bayswater – “that diamond of London place-names”
London place-names can often unlock the DNA of a neighbourhood or district. They're an x-ray of the past. Bayswater is a perfect case in point. David "guides" the name Bayswater in this podcast.
My Favourite Interview – Hampstead Artist Matt Phillips
This one's the result of a happy accident. I (David) was doing my Hampstead Walk a couple of Sunday mornings ago and up ahead an artist had set up his easel and was "rapt" (Shakespeare's word). He was in what I later discovered he calls "the zone" – the act of creation. The painting was (is) very beautiful. And, look, myself and my two walkers were a bit forward. We got to him and stood back away and watched him work. And then we were even more forward: we spoke to him. I was aware that maybe just then we were "th...
David on Memorial Day
Up in Hampstead, Memorial Day comes 52 times a year for David.
TRANSCRIPT
London calling. David here.
Today’s Memorial Day in the United States so I thought I’d do a personal – a David, a London-based, a from London Memorial Day piece for today’s podcast.
As it happens, every Sunday is a memorial day for me. So the where’s and when’s and why’s and what’s and who’s of those weekly acts of remembrance are part of what I’m going to set out here.
And let’s get it said that...
The Dark Side of the London Moon
David on tourists' London as opposed to Londoners' London. AKA how to read the London room.
Transcript
London calling. David here.
Somewhere in Shakespeare there’s a scene – this is from memory, alas, I haven’t been able to get a bead on the play, let alone track down the exact scene – anywhere somewhere in Shakespeare-land there’s a passage in which a nobleman, speaking to a fellow nobleman, talks about the little people, the ordinary people, how they’re always prattling about the deeds of the high and mighty.
Put me in mind, ever so...
“We never closed…we never clothed”
A David gallimaufry
TRANSCRIPT
London calling. David here.
Another gallimaufry tonight.
Thought I’d start with an addendum to yesterday’s podcast, which was mostly about the British slave trade and in particular my surprise that they were all at it.
By “all” I mean household names in the London pantheon. Famous 17th-century Londoners. People that we as guides talk about a fair bit. Because they’re good copy. There are good stories about them. And because they’re very much with us 350 years later. And not just in our history books. There...
Famous Londoners, Epiphanies & Serious History – a David podcast
David in a reflective mood. This one ranges over the slave trade, the three wise men, the gobsmacking stuff he (David) is finding out about London and some notable Londoners from a book he's reading that's, well, enthralling him.
Come Ashore – this is Hampstead & Hampstead Heath
This is a slice of the pie from David's Hampstead & Hampstead Heath Virtual Tour. The pole star of David's guiding is a remark by John Constable: "we see nothing till we truly understand it." So in this excerpt, you find out, for example, the role topography played in "preserving" Hampstead and Hampstead Heath. You find out about some of the major "players" in the saving of Hampstead Heath – and what was so remarkable about their hand and how they played it. In short, you "see" Hampstead better because you understand it.
QUOTES
"he was the key player in th...David on Downing Street
David takes a close look at the man behind the name Downing Street. And my goodness, look what he's found. It's like turning over a stone and finding some deeply unpleasant stuff crawling around underneath it. Deeply unpleasant is understating it – it's nasty in the extreme, what the history and biography yields up. So much so it's at least arguable that the name should perhaps be changed. Like toppling a statue and deep sixing it.
This Sunday is David’s Virtual Tour of Kensington – here’s how it opens
This is the start of David's Sights & Secrets of Kensington Virtual Tour. For the record, it's very similar to how his shoe- leather-on-pavement walking tour of Kensington opens.
MONEY QUOTE
"London specialises in hiding the best of itself"David recommends – Part II (the perfect route across Regent’s Park)
This is Part II of the route David would take for a feast of a London journey from the Abbey Road Studios (where Richard P.'s Beatles walks end) to Baker Street Station. A car-free journey of discovery and hidden places and water and wildlife and fresh air and Londoners' London and flowers and greenery and breathtaking set-piece architecture. This Part – Part II – is set entirely in Regent's Park. It's David's route across Regent's Park. You're going to walk across Regent's Park – and you want to get the most out of it – this is the route he'd recommend. It is, in his c...
David’s Recommendation – Part I
This is very prescriptive. It's David out walking and talking, walking the route he'd recommend if, at the end of the Beatles walk, you don't want to take the Tube back into central London. It's very detailed, very exact, this – full of practicals, full of advice. David tells you exactly how to do it if you fancy the best way of making your way back into central London from the famous crosswalk and the Abbey Road Studios in St. John's Wood. It's a three-segment journey. Starts with a very short bus ride. And then it's a walk along the Regent's Ca...
Where to eat in Kensington
Very simple, really. This podcast began life as an email David sent to a walker who rang up to say she and three friends were going on his Kensington Walk and could we recommend a place where they could get a bite to eat.
TRANSCRIPT
London calling.
David here.
Let’s talk food in Kensington. And chowing down al fresco in Kensington.
And yes, by my standards this one will be fairly brief.
But eminently practical. Including, yes, some directions.
Basically, I’m going to read out a lette...
Let’s meet a Londoner – actor William Wilde, runs Hornets today
Hornets is my favourite tiny shop in London. It's extremely high-quality, "previously owned" menswear – Savile Row, Jermyn Street, you get the idea. You'll find it – we find it on my Kensington Walk* – down a tiny, secret little passageway just off Holland Street in Kensington. It's run by one of my all-time favourite characters in London, the actor (and raconteur) William Wilde ("Bill"). I caught up with Bill – at Hornets of course – on March 24th. With Bill you just hit the Record switch, point the mic at him and sit back and enjoy the ride. Great guy. Great voice. Great (vast) fund of st...
Universal flux – David tucks in
Subtitle: Two very old photographs and an ancient place name – David gets back. A rumination about how London changes. And how our understanding and appreciation of it changes. Narrowing the focus, it's about Kensington. And zeroing in even closer, it's about the place name Kensington. David's the narrator (and guide and author). His Sights & Secrets of Kensington Virtual Tour is the jumping-off point.
TRANSCRIPT
London calling.
David here.
Funny the memories we retain, the stuff that sticks around in our mind. Sometimes for a very long time.
Some of them, it’s easy...
“She lost her virginity in a graveyard”
This podcast is an out-take from David's Hampstead & Hampstead Heath Virtual Tour. It's got "a wider range" than any other podcast we've done so far. From Hampstead to Italy to Germany to the Alps to Java to Niagara Falls to Madagascar. It's got a jaw-dropping cast of characters and an "almost defies belief" tiara of vignettes.
TRANSCRIPT
London Calling.
David here.
It’s out-take time.
That’s out-take as in a scene that ends up on the cutting room floor. Recorded but not included in the final version.
In this ins...
When a neighbour floods your cellar with urine – David reports
Exactly what it says on the tin
TRANSCRIPT
London Calling.
David here.
Ok, this one’s fairly personal. Personal. And angry.
So you’ve been warned. Switch off now – proceed no further – if you’d rather not go where I’m going to take you.
Undecided? Well, if it’s a factor – it’s not long, this podcast. It’s no more than 14 or 15 minute listen.
And hey, no way I would ever put up on the London Walks podcast something that’s 100 percent personal. This isn’t 100 percent personal. S...
David’s Charles Dickens Manuscript Discovery
For the anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth, David does a pull-together. It's a tale of two manuscript finds, of the Battle of Arnhem, of favourite professors, of a couple of virtual tours, of Harvard and London Universities, of John Keats, of Zoom, of Daphne du Maurier, of personal recollections, of the Victoria & Albert Museum, of academic tenure.
TRANSCRIPT
London Calling.
David here.
A couple of days ago Mary and I changed the lampshade on the light in the hall.
It was the highlight of the week. So exciting. Something different.
What’s in a London name? David finds out
David's been diving again. Diving for pearls in London lagoons nobody else knows about. And sure enough, he scored. Found twenty-five of them. Brought them up. And here they are. Never been seen before. Ok, that's a fanciful way of saying I've been doing some primary documents research. London documents. And have made some pretty special finds. Satisfying in so many ways, one of them being this is our secret, yours and mine. Nobody else has been where I've been the last couple of days, nobody else will have seen this stuff. (I like seeing stuff other people don't get...
The best house in London
David convincingly makes the case that the best house in London looks out over Hampstead's No. 1 pond What it's got is unique...
God’s Assassin
This podcast builds on a point Chris made in yesterday's "Today's the second day of Christmas..." This one is by David and, yes, it's called God's Assassin.
Transcript: God’s Assassin
God's Assassin. That's what this podcast is called. That's who stars in it. So, yes, London Calling. David here. In yesterday's Twelve Days of Christmas Podcast we learned from Chris that pigeons are actually on the marquee of that famous Christmas Carol. You know the drill: on the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me two turtle doves... In fact, the first seven days of...David on Dickens (No Christmas Dickens in this one, that’s for sure)
David's got a thing about Dickens. Dickens was life-changing for him. Dickens is the reason he's in this country. Indeed, Dickens is the reason David got into London Walks. Ian, who owned London Walks at the time, did not want an American guide. But David knew something about Dickens (University College London Ph.D. on Dickens, publications, etc.). This podcast is a long long way off from all the Christmas Dickens fare that's been knocking about. This is some good old fashioned "lit crit"– some taking the measure of the greatest novelist the English language has ever produced. It focuses pr...
Swapping Stories – James Bond, the naked actress at the door, etc.
London Walks guides know things about London other people don't know. Two London Walks guides – David and Justin (Justin's the London Walks James Bond expert) – were out "scouting locations" in Mayfair on December 11 with filmmaker Jon Klein. Twenty-fours later Justin was doing a James Bond walk that was going to have along a couple of former Bond girls and Daniel Craig's double. So, naturally, that walk got filmed. And on a certain little-known but very special Mayfair street David and Justin started swapping stories about what they know about that street. This podcast is the result.
Transcript:
Swap...
Cartoonist savages Boris Johnson, 10-year-old girl bests the City of London
A London miscellany.
Something a wee bit different. David's been reading the newspapers (3 December 2020). Here's what caught his eye this morning. Having a good soak in a couple of newspapers – one national, one local – it's a good way to take the pulse of a people, of a country, of a capital city, of a neighbourhood, of a polity. What they're looking at, what they're remembering, how they see their leaders, what's going on, both nationally, and in the case of the two Hampstead stories, locally.Transcript:
London Calling. David here.
Let’s kickback tonigh...
Tombs, Secret Doors & Hidden Gardens – David on Westminster Abbey
Listening to this is like being knighted. You'll arise and go forth – to the Abbey.
This is why you go on walking tours (well, it’s one reason, a helluva good reason)
No need to beat around the bush with this one. Finding out about Tania's Cafe is worth the price of admission of the Hampstead walk all by itself. And "finding out" is very much to the point. Guarantee you you almost certainly won't find it off your own bat. It's maybe London's most hidden cafe. It's down a secret alleyway. You go past a tiny little Piaggio van – you couldn't get a normal size vehicle in the passageway but that little van does fit, just. And of course the vehicle itself is a bit of Hampstead culinary history because it wa...
October 31 is a membrane “they” can pass through, get in amongst us.
This one's David doing his thing, brooding over words. In this case – it's Halloween after all – the words 'goodbye' and 'Halloween'. With some creepy history and a great moment in Eng Lit thrown in for some seasoning.
Transcript:
London Calling.
David here.
David creaking open some word doors. Getting into their darkest recesses.
On Halloween.
“When we say goodbye on Halloween what we’re really saying is ‘God be
with you’. Tease the word goodbye apart and it comes into view, like a print
coming up in a dark...
Let’s meet a Londoner!
David's been poking around in the undergrowth of history. This podcast introduces you to a resident of Kensington you hadn't heard of – but will be blissfully glad you got to meet her.
Let us now praise famous guides – Charles Chilton, the legendary BBC producer
Charles Chilton MBE – "the one true genius the BBC ever produced" (Daily Telegraph) – was the best-loved London Walks guide of them all. Hardly surprising since "he was the most gifted storyteller I've ever known" (David). This podcast rejoices in a few great Charles Chilton anecdotes as it tells, very briefly, the remarkable and inspiring story of Charles' life. It takes as its jumping-off point the cameo role Charles plays in the podcast yesterday about Adam's Musical Marylebone Virtual Tour.
Transcript
London Calling.
David here.
This one’s close to home. In fact, it doesn’...
The Perfect October Afternoon in London
This one's discursive, laid-back and piquant (in places). David goes a Londoning. Here's what he brought back.
And if I speak of paradise
A man on the street, ordinary life report (by David) about London. What it's like here now (October 2020). What it looks like, sounds like, feels like.
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal interviewed David today. They wanted to find out what it's been like for a small business in this Covid era, what our response has been, where things stand now, what we think the future holds for us (for London Walks), etc. This podcast (talk) is a synopsis of what David told them. He said, "the entire experience can be crystallised in the figure £450. Better write it down."
Favourite moment, favourite memory on a favourite walk
David put his foot in his mouth on his Kensington walk. But it worked out ok. In supporting roles: Thackeray, Churchill, Vanity Fair and an English cavalry officer or two.
How to sort the wheat from the weeds – Part 2
Right round the world there's probably half a million walking tour companies. The price of admission to go on a walking tour won't break the bank. But the opportunity costs of a walking tour are very expensive. So it's important to do what the wealthy do as a matter of course – get the best (the poor man always pays twice). In this instance, track down the best walking tour company wherever you are, use their guides. How do you do that? David and Mary – not in their capacity as the London Walks commanding officers but in their capacity as experienced trav...
Trouble at Mill
Once seen never forgotten, the striped house. It's back in the news. She's now suing her lawyers. David reports.
London’s history crystallised in a single word
David was out walking the eerily quiet streets of central London today. What he saw put him in mind, first, of Malaga and then of one of the "nodal, defining moments of London's history. A nodal, defining moment that's preserved in stone. AKA London's long, colourful, dramatic – hell, yes, let's get some adjectives into this parade – history crystalised in a single word
How do you sort the wheat from the weeds – Part I
High quality walking tours – how do you sort the wheat from the chaff? This podcast is the first of a series of guidelines that will stand you in good stead. A checklist, really.
When David met Boris Johnson
Ok, it's a top-up to yesterday's 9 Buckingham Gate piece. But, yes, Boris Johnson, plays a cameo role. And there's other good stuff, ranging from house prices to 'the least inhibited tongue in Europe'
“If you understand 9 Buckingham Gate you understand the world”
David's been digging. Digging in a seriously old money neighbourhood. "If you live in a 24-room house across the street from Buckingham Palace... a century and more of world history flows from that as a matter of course."
